Bold sunlight streamed through floor-to-ceiling windows, illuminating the heavy furniture, as George kept up his lecture. Theo found his attention drawn to the stone mantelpiece, which housed a collection of carved animals, including ivory elephants, and glass domes that covered stuffed small birds and butterflies: Victorian dioramas, Theo realized, having seen them in photographs. The building and its contents were quite a contrast to the sparse and modern Park Avenue offices, and Theo sensed he would have to get used to many other differences in the weeks ahead.

George leaned across his desk and flipped the lid on an onyx cigarette box. “Help yourself to a Piccadilly—I shouldn’t think you get these over there,” he said, taking one for himself and leaning over to light Theo’s.

“Thanks.”

“How did you sleep?” George asked, releasing a ribbon of smoke.

“Like a log,” Theo lied. He wasn’t about to confess he’d spent the previous night with his head stuck over a bowl and that he still felt like he’d eaten jumping beans and that someone had set off a firecracker in his head. He just hoped he was doing a good job of disguising it.

“That’s marvelous. So, how are things on your side of the pond?”

“The rations are making it hard for everyone, but support for the industry has never been better. The New York office is booming, particularly with our crime backlist.”

“Surprising, isn’t it? You’d think people would want to feel comforted in precarious times with romance and love stories, not give themselves the heebie-jeebies.”

“I know, that’s what we were trying to figure out. I think it’s just another way to escape, pretend the danger is happening to someone someplace else.” Theo hadn’t verbalized this to anyone before, but he could see from the look in George’s eyes that he agreed.

“And what of these special books Walter’s been telling me about?”

“We’re planning to ship the first Armed Services Editions to the troops in September, and they’re going to be as revolutionary for them as paperbacks were to the rest of us,” Theo said with pride.

“How so?”

“For starters, the books are small enough to fit in soldiers’ pockets and light enough to carry. They’re also printed across the two pages so they can be read by more than one reader at a time.”